PCC 2-Pack Review: Sledge w/Throttler

Here's my second of the three new PCC Commander 2-pack reviews, Sledge w/Throttler.

When I first saw Sledge, my thoughts were 'another backhoe?' maybe evoking bad memories of Car Robots Grimlock (or Build Hurricane? forget the exact name) or numerous other poorly executed TF Backhoes. For some reason, it's a vehicle that doesn't always get executed as a TF all that well. But when I saw Sledge in the package in robot mode, he looked good, with arms that were in proportion and actual hands rather than scoops for hands, and I liked the minicon/drill idea, so I picked him up.

Sledge comes packaged in robot mode, and the first impression is a solid badass construction 'bot, mainly safety yellow, black and some decepticon purple with silver accents. He's got a hefty sawblade in the center of his chest, the hardpoint that is at the top of his vehicle mode cabin is just to the right of the saw, off center. The sawblade spins a bit, but there's no gimmick to spin it. That's okay, though, this isn't Starriors.

The PCC combiner pegs are at the top of his shoulders sticking up, but they kind of look like smokestacks, so they aren't too bad looking. The arms have lots of nice jointing, including tricky shoulders that allow for some nice range of motion. You can unfold the steam shovel scoops and give him 'brute mode' arms without losing too much movement, or turn one of the arms around to make use of the hardpoint on the end of the shovel scoop for driller bot mode. He does have hands as well, so you can fit him for a sidearm if you wish. The head is interesting, he has 'blinders' on each side of his face, which I figured correctly had something to do with his second face mode - all you do is close the blinders and turn the head around for his larger 'armor up' head mode.

The face mold is another good one, he looks angry and slightly constipated. The blinders make him look like he's got protective gear on. The second head has faceguards on each side (the blinders when they close open these on the other side) and the face is very reminiscent of classic Soundwave and/or the original Decepticon symbol. I can see that head becoming very popular for Soundwave kitbashes.

There are purple Decepticon symbols on each forearm shield. The legs are the standard-by-now tread legs, ending in bulldozer scoop feet, with the PCC leg pegs forming heel spurs. The legs have a bit of springloaded feature where the middle of the tread pops out to form the knee, and allow for good range of motion. There are the usual thigh swivels, and ankle swivels due to torso mode.

Transformation to backhoe mode is a bit tricky, but nice. The legs fold under and peg in to form the vehicle treads, with a nice amount of clearance for the heel PCC pegs. The treads spring back into place once you transform them and roll fine on the bogey wheels. The scoops end up in front. The torso flips around so that the saw is also on the front right in the center of, and in between, the scoops. It's worth noting that the saw has its own hinge for poseability in vehicle mode, so it's like a jumbo chop saw.

The side panels unsnap and swing back and then the arms transform together into the backhoe - here's where that tricky rotating shoulder bit comes into play - the PCC pegs don't change position, but there are yellow bits that rotate on the upper arm so that the arms come together nicely for backhoe mode. The arms and scoop peg together firmly, and there is a nice range of motion for the backhoe, so it can actually scoop (a refreshing change of pace from the usual backhoe TF).

You end up with hardpoints on the scoop bottom and the cab top, the scoop bottom one is clearly meant for Throttler in his drill mode, you can pose it so that the drill is pointing forward or even mostly vertically down.

Torso mode is pretty good - there are some extra hinges in the legs that get used, and the scoops wind up covering the leg connections well as extra armor. The rotating 90 degree shoulder panels put the PCC arm connectors out, while the arms fold up to put the scoop halves on the shoulders as armor. The cab unfolds a bit, and the saw pushes back into the chest on its hinge so that the chest hardpoint gets centered for the chest armor. I don't see how it connects to anything too well, though. Not bad for a torso mode.

Throttler is another misnomer, he should be named Drillbit or Abcess or something to have to do with drilling, not a throttler. He comes in robot mode, with long lower legs, pointy kneecaps, and funny looking arms and a cyclopean peg head. Yes, his head is a peg. Why do these guys even have pegs? I mean, it's a nice feature but it's not used for much.

He transforms into a big translucent purple drill bit with a little bit of a base with the hole in the center. The drill looks great with sculpted details. His base even turns! I can see a lot of fun being had with this little guy. I'm tempted to buy another one so I can paint him red and have a minicon that transforms into a strawberry.

The armor mode is kind of nothing special, but there are lots of ways you can half-transform the drill halves to make the minicon into effective armor. He's super poseable and fun. I just noticed, too, that he has a four legged walker tank mode - just unpeg the drill and pose each arm and leg so that the drill base, which looks like a cab, points forward. His head can stand in for a tank cannon.

I'll work on the photo skills, normally my camera's fine, but for some reason the photos don't come out great on these. I'll look over the tips to see if I can improve these.

A note on the Sledge review - I said previously that the chest hardpoint can fold open so that it is centered, but doesn't seem to lock onto anything, I did find that there is a slanted tab that holds the chest peg in place. It doesn't lie flat, it's a shallow V shape, but the effect is that the chest peg is centered and solid.

So far I'm liking this guy a lot, tons of poseability and playability.

That's not motion blur, it's the camera's auto focus. Flickr tells me what model camera you used. The specs for it says the normal mode's focus range starts at 50cm - almost two feet. You should switch to macro mode which is supposed to let the camera focus at a lot closer range. You'll fill up the frame more and probably have clearer photos. Also bumping up the shutter speed to 1/60 or 1/80 would make it fast enough to compensate for any mild hand-wobble.